(OK, before you think I'm anti India, anti travel, anti optimistism, let me jsut say there WILL be posts on some good things coming soon.)
Because the hotel restaurant in Bharatpur, North India takes an hour to serve cold coffee and burnt roti to people who ordered sweet lassi and raitha and nan we go looking for a better place to eat. We stumble across the Jungle Lodge. It's a small mom and pop type homestay and restaurant, the kind that are popular all over India and notorious for being extremely well-priced. One long wooden picnic table on a canopied patio space functions as the dining room. We seat ourselves next to a couple Westerners who are enjoying their curries..
While we're waiting, a blond, scruffy looking guy with a friendly smile approaches. He totally looks like the jam band, rock climbing type, and he's flipping through a well-used copy of Lonely Planet: India.
"Hey! Do you guys know about the trains around here?" he asks, "We need to catch on to our next stop, but I'm worried because it's Diwali (a big Indian holiday) it's going to be really busy."
None of us have used the trains in the north so we can't offer him advice. But he pulls up a chair anyways, ready to chat with some fellow Americans. And I have to admit, it's nice to talk to a new Western face. He introduces himself as Tatum and tells us he's traveling around the world (a "world tour," he says) with his girlfriend of seven years, on the money they've been saving from their former jobs as "environmental biologists". They began in Hungary and are making their way all the way to Australia before teaching English at an undisclosed location in Eastern Asia.
Naturally, we are all impressed by their choice of life and their follow-through on such a plan. It implies a sort of stick-it-to-the-man attitude.
"I bet you've been meeting some really interesting people," I say.
"Oh man, you wouldn't believe some of them! This one guy is biking from the Netherlands to South Africa. And someone else we met said he is walking from the beginning of The Great Wall Of China to Portugal.
"I mean, Christ, just when you think you're doing something a little bit out there, you meet a guy like that!"
We all agree that walking that far is wild. But Tatum's stories sort of relate to all the thinking I've been doing about why the hell people travel in the first place. I think your initial answer might be something like "to see the world" or "to have fun adventures." But the more I travel, the more I think it's less about this, and more about attempting to fill some lack in our own lives.
Here are the real reasons people travel, according to me (agree with me or don't):
* We travel to check another destination of the list, so we can say we've been there/done that - Traveling, in our culture definitely has its connotations. It's associated with either wealth, freedom, or being ballsy (depending on what kind of travel). We can say, "yeah, I've seen an authentic Fijian tribal dance " or "I've walked on the biggest wall in the world." And this helps to build up our persona and give us extra points on the cool scale. People will be envious. Under the influence of a mass-produced, totally impersonal guide book, tourists tromp around snapping photos with their 15 mega pixel Canon five millions while burying their noses in their favorite weekly magazine, then go back to swim in chlorine-filled hotel pools. After they get the money shot, it's on to the next well-known hot spot to get the next important photo (maybe holding the Eiffel Tour in the palm of their hand). They have no interest in the actual places they are visiting, besides that one fantastical touristy monument that will give them clout.
* We travel because we are unsatisfied with our everyday lives - Something about the day-to-day routine is just not bringing us the kind of contentedness we crave. So we go. We go to seek out that satisfaction. We think we might find it at the picturesque Taj Mahal, somewhere in the canals of Venice of on the turquoise beaches of Aruba. But the more we travel, the more we are disappointed in the realization that a place is just a place - nothing magical to it. Absolutely nowhere is going to fill that feeling of desire because it doesn't originate in a physical place; it comes from the place inside you. And until you find a way to dive into that crazy place, you can go to the moon and watch the earth come up and still not fill that lack.
*We travel because we're commitmentphobs - I think this might be specific to my own generation and younger. Think about it: in one hour of TV watching, we see maybe two completely unrelated shows. During them, we see maybe 15 commercials. In all these commercials we probably see a hundred of separate camera shots, a hundred flashes of different scenes. We also hear dozens and dozens of sound and music clips - all while there is next to no plot, dialogs or character development. Some goes for other media like movies and especially the internet. Experts might call it ADD but I just call it conditioning for the modern technological worlds. Either way, traveling fits right in to this because we need need NEED something new to stimulate our seriously stunted attention spans. New scenery, new people, new everything. I mean, who wants to stare at the Pyramids of Egypt their entire lives? Borrrring.
*We travel because we're scared of a "yes" answer to the question, "is this all there is?" We go because the alternative is like surrendering; it's giving in to life as it is. We go because staying is too much like dieing, and dieing is scary. If we stay, of there's nothing new to see, what else is there to live for? We fail to understand the value in being in just one locality.
*Then there are those do-gooders who think they will actually be able to become better people or help humanity, the environment, or the manatees because the knowledge and experience they learn on their travels...Bah! I laugh at you! (OK, maybe I was on of them at some point, and maybe a small part of me still feels that in some ways I will be a better person for traveling).
After a couple minutes Tatum heads back to the love of his life and travel partner and the owner of the hotel comes to talk to us. He's a short man with a big mustache and pleasant smile. We talk a bit about the types of travelers he gets and other light things.
"These four hotels in a row are owned by my brothers," he eventually tells us. "This land used to be my fathers, now we all use it. I am the youngest of five brothers and three sisters."
"Wow," I say, "I wish I had so much family so close to me."
"Yes. But it isn't good now. Now they always fight."
"Oh, it must be really competitive?"
"Very very much. And my family, they aren't like me. They don't like to travel. I don't know why. Travel is very good"
"Where have to you traveled?" I ask.
"All over India. You know, it's like the frog that lives in a well. He swims around and around. He thinks he's seen everything. But there's a whole world outside he doesn't see."
What I'm thinking is, "yeah, there's probably a cat or something ready to rip it to shreds waiting outside that well." I don't tell him this, of course. I just nod in agreement. But part of me is really beginning to understand why my father, who has done his fair share of international travel doesn't really feel the need to go to many more places on the earth.
Sometimes it feels like a lot of work, time and money for minimal payback. What am I really getting out of seeing some artifacts, or even witnessing all this poverty? But I guess you have to see a few places to figure this out. And who knows, maybe I'll change my mind for tomorrow. All I know is that home is sounding really nice right now.
I see Tatum the next day at the famous bird sanctuary in Bharatpur. He's crouching on the ground with his girlfriend (they look perfect together), and they're both photographing the myriads of flying creatures, including endangered migrating cranes from Singapore. Tatum looks like he couldn't be having a better time.
All I know is that home is sounding really nice right now. That, and I hope Tatum gets what he's touring for.
6 comments:
Very true. I just finished reading Into the Wild for one of my journalism classes. Not sure if you read it, but the author brings up a lot of the same ideas you do when he's trying to understand why someone might want to go live in the woods in isolation for two years. I think most of your reasons for why we travel are dead on. We definitely want to feel cool, and we definitely want to be able to say we've been there or done that. It makes us feel special and educated, even if we're not. I also agree with the part about getting bored easily and that we are unsatisfied with our every day lives. Definitely how I feel when I travel. I hesitate on the point about being afraid that this is all there is. If we're afraid that the answer to that inevitable question is yes, it seems natural that we would try to avoid this discovery. This isn't all there is. My life right now isn't all there is to do in the world. If I travel, in my opinion, the answer is no. I always find myself impressed with the multitude of things I could be doing. There are two problems. One is that all these things depend on conditions (ie I could be lying on the beaches of Mexico drinking pina coladas all day if I had an endless supply of money) which more often than not are impossible. The second is that inevitably, as you mention, we get bored with our lives. No matter what we're doing, we can't be entertained by one thing forever. And because it's impossible to keep traveling and finding new things to do everytime we get bored, we stay where we are. This is probably also why we don't live forever.
Just a thought. I could go on, but I won't bore you. From this post I'm getting the feeling you want to come home (since you mention it like three times). I understand that. But take it from me. Home is boring. I know it's hard to appreciate when you've spent months away, but just know how little time it will take you to be bored once you get back :)
I think people also travel just for the experience of it. It's not just that normal everyday life is boring but that everyone needs change. Traveling opens you up to people and things you would not experience at home. (There's a reason that taking LSD was called tripping.) How many new people have you met and interacted with in India? How many new poeple would you have met at home in the same time period?
And of course you can't do it forever. Constant change becomes as boring and tiring as constant sameness. But everyone needs the new perspectives that traveling provides. That's how we all grow and mature and get introduced to new ideas.
In a way we are always like little children who explore a new environment a little but also often return to the security of their mothers. Traveling is an expansive, growth period and returning home allows you to consolidate and incorporate what you have learned and experienced into the new/old you.
But why, then does world travel cost so much waste? Why is flight so fuel inefficient? And cars for that matter. They are damaging to the earth. Also when I travel, I feel like I'm messing with the place's culture for my own benefit.
I don't deny we have a basic impulse to explore. We do have that drive, but how far are we really meant to go?
Maybe we are only supposed to go as far as our legs can take us.
Travel doesn't have to cost so much. I bicycled 3000 miles in Europe and hitchhiked all across the USA and Canada several times.
And train travel I think is fairly efficient relative to other means.
But I didn't realize your original post was related to the cost of travel in environmental terms. I think to some extent, the environmental fears are somewhat over blown. Problems eventually bring about there own solutions one way or another. All the talk about climate change is starting to effect how humans act (eg. more hybrids) and either we will adapt or, worst case, we will perish and the earth will repair itself. In truth, we really don't have to worry about hurting the earth, we will mainly be hurting ourselves. I think in reality, humans and the earth are always adapting to each other. And, hey, we weren't responsible for the disappearence of the dinosaurs.
As for "messing with a place", that's a fact of life for everyone at all times. By existing you exert an influence (force) on your environment and the environment exerts an equal force on you. (Newton's third law of motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.) That's just (haha) something we all have to come to terms with. But that force doesn't have to "mess" with things. It can be a force for "good." We will have to talk about "good" and "evil" another time.
How far are we really meant to go? That's just a form of the existential dilemma. Everyone must decide for herself.
We also travel to test ourselves and our abilities to adapt; to test our abilties to accept other human beings and their practices, and request the same from them. We travel to learn and understand, hoping to seek partial fulfillment of a belief in the commonalities of the human race and experience. Also to understand our isolation and vast differences. We do it to better understand the complexities of our humanity, to find the place where our individuality ends and commonality begins, and of course, where our universality contracts to our ultimate oneness, our lone experience of life. We find ultimate joy through sharing. Like anything in daily life, but particularly in travel, the joy comes from the sharing.
Perfect reasons for traveling. I want more of a conclusion on the topic when we discuss this in person. Yes those are all true. But what else is true? Why will you miss it when you're back home? Why will it always be a "part" of you wherever you go in life?
What the hell is life?
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